The Acoustic Festival of Britain

In 2007 I booked and paid for tickets for all my family to attend and camp at this festival in Nantwich. We never got a festival and we never got a refund! It was cancled the day before we were due to travel there. Despite returning the tickets by recorded delivery, as requested, and being very patient, all we got were excuses and promisses of a refund "after the next festival". This went on for over a year, initially I some sympathy for the situation the promotors were in, but as time went on on I did start to feel I was being fobbed off. I had just been made redundant at the time and the festival was to be our family holiday that year - we could not afford to lose that money. Eventually the company that organised the festival went into liquidation... no prospect of refund ever. But look what has happened now, they are back - a "slightly" different company but they claim the "past" events organised by their predecessor company as theirs! In reallity they are the same people, Mike Stephens etc.

My advice is to think very carefully before booking tickets for this festival. The Nantwich one was not the only one to be cancled, at least one other was also cancled. If you do decide to go ahead do NOT pay the organisers directly (as I did to save a few pounds) - use a credit card to pay, at least you can then get your money back if things go wrong.

We have been to this festival each year from it's beginning in Nantwich.

Great relaxed atmosphere. Good sized camping/caravanning site. Clean toilets, hot showers. Family orientated, the kids can go off learning to use a diabloe if they don't want to watch the Bands.

Good line-up of bands and artists. If you don't want to listen to the Bands on the main stage you can wander around and catch artists you have never heard of and be pleasantly surprised. Highlights this yeat for me were seeing Fish (Marillion) singing amongst the crowd and Cerys Mathews performing ballads accompanied by only an acoustic guitar. What an amazing powerful voice! Roll on next year.

Thought this was a great little festival - good relaxed atmosphere, music was impressive, was good to see icons of the 60's/70's like the Strawbs and Wishbone Ash. Hazel O'Connor was fab, impressive acoustic version of Eight Day, even though the sound was a bit hit and miss in the big top venue. Liked Steve Harley, better than expected and really enjoyed Sheelanagig, Seven Little Sisters and Hayseed Dixie.

Loads of space for camping and the loo's were great, flushing, ceramic, never ran out of loo roll, soap, paper towels etc. Veritable luxury when compared to the Glasto loos!

A good kick-off to the festival season if you like acoustic music, beer and a relaxed vibe.

humm? well gave it a try as like steve harley, ( he was great) as was john parr (wow) but you would enjoy it more if you re over 50 and bearded! male or female!! was a bit too old hippy for us but a bit of fun andbeer was ok . toilets yakky, sad cos they are mentioned in the flyers as being ok!

Second year at this festival. Fantastic, friendly people, great bands, good food and amazing weather both years.

2009: Favourites were Baka Beyond, Aziz, Ed Tudor Pole, Ade Edmondson and the Bad Shepherds.

2010: Too many to mention but a few are - Aziz, Mike ? and Amy ? (she played harp), Piste Artistes

Great facilities even though the hot water ran out on the Sunday (it was soon sorted out).

Although I don't have children, this is a great festival for kids - not too big and plenty to keep them busy.

Santa even came along this year!

As the Sun would say,"Phew, What A Scorcher!"

Couldn't have planned better weather for going to our first acoustic festival. The venue was great, as were the camping facilities. The festival site was well laid out and not too big. My only concern was the dome stage being too small for some of the bands playing(3 Daft Monkeys and Leatherat nned more space). Most main stage acts were really good, but what was Donovan on! I know he is laid back, but his set was embarrasing, lots of people left mid way through!

Overall, great weekend. Thanks to all those involved in the organisation,planning and stewarding.

Cheers, Nigel J.

Good site close to the town and railway station. Good Car Parking and access and Camping next to your car. Excellent bands both known and unknown. Nice clean toilets and showers. Litter free site. Lots for the kids - football workshops, face paining, juggling, drumming. Very laid back. One of the best "small" festies. Unfortunately, Tescos ran out of ice, the weather was so hot.

Donovan was great, like in a living legend sense, but was a bit ropey at times. Really enjoyed 3 daft monkeys as always but the real standout for me was a group in the beer tent on Saturday called GHOST TRAINS. Just ace songs, really, really good. Has anyone heard of them playing anywhere else?

Great Festival! this was my first time going and I was really impressed. The atmosphere was brilliant and good fun for all the family, staff and security were both helpful and friendly. The toilet and shower facilities were very clean too. The entertainment was great all around, The Hampsters and Kate Rusby deliverd a most enjoyable set on the main stage, but there were also some more fantastic bands & artists on the other stages too.

SURPRISE OF THE WEEKEND: I saw an amazing band called The Beetroot Kings. I was absolutley blown away by their set! they were without a shadow of a doubt were the best band there all weekend, it was so refreshing to hear a new band with such a different sound. Very Entertaining! will definitely be getting tickets for this Festival again. :)

First time ive taken my family to a festival, we are local so thought this would be perfect. We didnt camp but the facilities on site i.e toilets showers looked lovely and clean. The food was of a high standard and value for money. We went saturday night and sunday all day, the weather was simply exausting, but still wonderful. Saw Donovan saturday night. im not a fan but he was suprisingly good. Sunday was a Great day for music the highlight for me was seeing a band id never even heard of called beetroot kings. There was alot of talk about them round the festival so i sheltered from the sun in the beer tent to see them. fantastic atmosphere in there they totally lit up the afternoon getting all the crowd singing along to them. only downside was the long breaks between artists. We were front of stage to see the levellers acoustic and as always they performed very polished and got everyone jumping about. This is a great festival for families and having a relaxing weekend. i hope it comes to Utoxeter again 2011 i will certainly be attending.

And all round fun and relaxing weekend listening to great artists some big some small but a great mix. highlight of the weekend? BEETROOT KINGS hands down the best band there. supurb.